Falling Apart

Ugh. Just when I was on a roll, feeling really good about my fitness level and workout schedule, I've developed some sort of lower spine issue. It's only been a week now, but with my job and level of activity, any injury or illness can seem like an eternity when it's disrupting my daily workouts and limiting what I can do in the work setting. It started on Friday morning when I woke up, sat up in bed and realized my very low spine was throbbing...almost that feeling of falling directly on your tailbone, but it was that whole section of sacral vertebrae. For those of you who aren't anatomy nerds, your spine is divided into 4 sections (cervical, thoracic, lumber and then finally the sacral vertebrae are the very lowest ones that are fused together and end in the tailbone.) Nothing I did in my Thursday workouts came to mind as what could have triggered this. I taught core class (which is only 10 mins of ab and low back strength) ball yoga and then boot camp, which is always my typical Thursday schedule. I even asked around to some of the participants who were in any of those classes and nobody else had noticed anything strange.

And it's just getting progressively worse. Both Monday and Tuesday I taught cycle classses, which really aggravated the spine even more from the sitting position on the bike. It's constantly a bit painful just standing still, but any movement triggers more intense pain and any pressure to the area creates more of a burning sensation deep within. Even on Wednedsay, doing 30-minutes of yoga triggered pain in the simplest poses. My range of motion is also becoming more limited, to the point where bending down to pick a dumbbell off the floor is a tedious task. The hardest part is not just that my own workouts are affected, but like I mentioned, my entire day is disrupted. I can't full-out participate in my strength classes; during personal training, there are exercises I can't demonstrate without pain; and forget about any extra workouts of my own.

I may be freaking out a little bit here, but it's becoming really scary when a) the situation is not improving, in fact getting worse and b) it has to be a nerve issue in the spine--which is a more serious issue than just muscle pain and also outside a fitness instructor's scope of expertise. So what are my options...pinched nerve? Sciatica? Nothing fun, or easy to fix. The truth is, I would need about a week of no physical activity, which is pretty impossible unless I took a week of vacation.

So, there's my pity party for the day. Sorry you were invited.